Chapter Nine
Skipping Stones
Sariah loaded George onto the wheelbarrow and they set off into adventure. The sun soon drove off the chill of the morning fog, and then the noonday heat dried poor George’s water out and made Sariah’s cheeks feel hot. She realized somewhere around that time that they’d forgotten food, but if she went back, there was no telling what might happen. James and John might be there—or even Miss de Berry. The longer Sariah had to contemplate her on-the-fly theory, the more it actually seemed to make sense. There could be no coincidence that three people of dubious backgrounds appeared at their house within a few days of meeting George. And James and John—well, they’d rubbed Sariah the wrong way. Even if they weren’t hunters, they were jerks, and she’d be loath to surrender George to either option.
“You can’t push me forever,” George said. They’d barely exchanged a word or even played pretend. “And I’m hungry.”
Sariah’s stomach, which she’d been arguing with since the first hunger pain, grumbled loudly to agree. “I—I don’t know what to do, though.”
George pointed up ahead, to where the sea cut through a large cliff, like someone had carved a huge letter “O” out of the stone. “Go there. It’ll get us out of the sun, at least.”
Sariah did so, and through a fair amount of dragging, and swimming, and pushing, they somehow managed to make it in the cold heart of the “O.”
Sariah shivered as George hoisted her up on the rock. He dove under the water a few times, the only thing visible were the little “spines” on his tail and his flipper every once in a while. When he did surface, he had a few wriggly fish and some kelp in each hand.
“Don’t look,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“Because I said so. Please?” George looked up at her with those dark eyes, and Sariah found that she had to obey him.
She turned her body and stared out at the sea. Angry waves lapped against the solitary pole that seemed to hold up their hiding spot. The foam swirled and tossed about…
Sariah sighed and turned her attention to her foot. Her wrap had come undone during their journey, but besides that, it was filthy. She carefully unwound it and stared at the injury below. It was mostly scabbed over, but her escape had rubbed raw spots once more. A bit of blood had colored her bandage as well. She washed it off and only cried a bit as the stinging saltwater cleansed her wound. Or infected it—who knew. She wasn’t good at nursing things.
“Okay, you can look.”
Whatever he had done, he now had chunks of fish wrapped up in seaweed. He threw away bits of bone back into the water and pushed some towards her. “If you don’t like it, I understand.”
Sariah ate it without complaint. It was a little chewier than she would have expected, but her stomach had been complaining for a while. Beggars can’t be choosers, after all.
George picked at his own food. It took him a minute before he spoke. “Why are you doing this?”
Sariah glanced at him. She tugged her knees closer to her body, ever cautious of her injury. “Why am I doing what? Eating? Because I’m hungry.”
For a split second, Sariah could have sworn the snarky spirit of Lizzie had just possessed her.
“No. Helping me. You don’t really know me. Your nanny is doing this because she had a friend like me, but...you’ve only known me for a few days.”
“But we’re still friends.” Sariah popped another bite into her mouth, as if that was that.
“But you don’t know anything about me. What makes you think you like me enough to be my friend?”
Sariah shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re exciting. You’re different.”
“So you only like me because I’m an experience to you?”
Sariah jerked her head up. What kind of a question was that? The spirit of Lizzie must have vacated her body already, because Sariah suddenly didn’t have the answers. But George looked very serious. And almost—like he might start crying.
Sariah’s heart twisted up and hurt more than her foot ever did. “No! It’s not that. Sometimes—sometimes you don’t need to know everything to be friends.” She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him. She scooted as close as she dared to on the rock. “You’re fun to play pirates with. You’re a mystery. You’re—nice. And you’re so sad. I just want to make you happy.”
George didn’t say anything, but he sniffled an awful lot. Sariah held him closer. Maybe it wasn’t the time to be Lizzie, or Frances, or even a pirate. Maybe only Sariah could navigate these dangerous waters.
“Don’t send me back down there,” George whispered in a clogged voice. “I don’t want to go back to the sea. And—I don’t know what goes on in the house. I hear voices and everyone always talks about me. They all want to protect me, but—I’m just scared that it’s all a trick.”
“Then you don’t have to worry anymore. We’re here, and I’m not going to let Miss de Berry or James and John touch you.” She hesitated—before she did something that a real pirate would never do.
She started to sniffle, too.
“My mother—she’s always worried about me. She worries about my health...my lungs...when I was a baby, I was sickly. And—I don’t think she can ever see past the sickly baby that she nursed. So—that’s the reason I want adventure. I just want to be able to do something without people telling me I’m weak or fragile. Because...once you’re told something so much, you start to believe it.” Sariah gave a tiny, breathless cough. “But you’re much more than an adventure! Even if you were just a normal boy with two legs instead of a fin, I would still want you here. I would still want to play with you. I want to be your friend.”
“I’ve never had a friend before, either.” George’s voice was quiet. “I’ve never even had anyone help me. I’m glad you’re my friend, Riah. I think you’ve got lots of great ideas and you make me happy. I’m glad that it was you who found the cage.”
“Me, too.” Sariah clung to him for a minute before she drew back. “I wish I was a mermaid like you. I mean—you’re obviously a merman, but—”
“Don’t wish that. It’s not that fun.” His eyes flickered to her and back to the water, and he wiped at his own wet eyes before he took another bite of his seaweed-fish wrap. “I wish I just had two legs, like you. Then I could run away and never look back.”
“But—the sea must be so fun! Swimming all day, catching fish…” Sariah sighed. “You’re free underneath the water.”
“You might be,” George muttered. Or at least, that was what it sounded like.
“What do you mean?”
George opened his mouth. For a moment, Sariah felt like the axis of the world might tilt—that he might tell her something that could never be unsaid or forgotten. The world lingered for a moment—one heartbeat, two heartbeats, three—
George popped another bite into his mouth and it was over. The normal rotation of the world resumed, and whatever he had been about to say he must have swallowed with the fish. “I mean, we’re both free and happy here. Why do we need to go anywhere else?” He grinned, his dimple appearing once more. “Unless it’s a pirate ship, of course.”
“Of course,” Sariah agreed. “George, if you could be anything when you’re an adult, what would you be?”
He looked surprised. “Nobody’s ever asked me that question before.”
“But you’ve thought of an answer, haven’t you?” Sariah dipped her toe into the water and let the waves nibble at it. “Everyone has.”
George nodded. His mind seemed to toss and turn the question around just like the ocean might rock a boat back and forth in a perilous storm. “I want to be loved. And—” He took a deep breath. “I want to grow up before I think about it all being over with! I’m okay with being a kid. I hear it’s a blast.”
Sariah laughed, but stopped when she realized maybe he wasn’t joking. There was a look in his eyes that made her think he was serious, despite the jovial attitude.
She leaned her head onto his shoulder. “It’s pretty great, I think. Hey—I have an idea! I bet you’ve never skipped rocks before underwater. I could teach you.”
George blinked his eyes a few times. “Skip rocks? How do you do that? Do you have to jump? I’m a pretty good jumper.” He gave a few little hops on his bottom, and had to pump his arms vigorously to get any air on those.
Sariah crossed her arms around her stomach and cackled. The laughter echoed off their little cavern, and she tilted over onto her side.
George’s eyes sparkled. “Want to see something else?”
He gave a few more hops to get himself into the water, which splashed her with water. She shrieked and slapped her wet, frizzy bangs away from her forehead—just in time to see him break from the water. He twisted in mid-air a few times, just like Sariah had seen a dolphin do at a circus show, and then disappeared below the waves again.
And, just like she had for the dolphin, Sariah whooped, hollered, and clapped.
George surfaced again near her, his head first. He propped his elbows up on the rock and stared up at her, rivulets of water still tracing paths around his nose and down his cheeks. His dimple was out again. “Did you like it?”
“I love it! We should have our own circus. I could be the—the—ringmaster or maybe the trapeze artist!” Sariah tried to pretend like she was balancing on the high-wire, like she’d seen a woman do at the circus, but it was hard with only one operational foot. So she mostly just scooted along, but that only increased her worry that she might slip on the rocks. She’d surely bust her head open, and there would be blood everywhere—
Maybe she was her mother’s child after all, but whatever the reason, she still plopped back down.
“But what about a pirate?” George rested his chin on his hands. “I thought you wanted to be a pirate.”
“We can work something out,” Sariah assured him. She lay down on the ground and stared up at the rocky, craggy ceiling above them. “Maybe we’ll be pirates while we’re on sea, driving to different exotic locales, and then put on circuses when we get there.”
“We better start soon if we’re running away. We’ll need money for a ship and tent soon enough.”
Sariah nodded. “Very true.”
Her fingers found a loose rock as she spoke. She twirled it between her fingers before she rolled over onto her side. “Ready for your first lesson in skipping stones?” George nodded, his eyes wide. “Okay, so you hold it like this—find a smooth one if you can—”
She dictated the proper procedural to him. George nodded and made comments at the appropriate times. His first test came in just a few minutes.
“So—like this. Flick your wrist, and…” Sariah flung her rock: one skip! Two—oh. No. Just one.
Her attempt sank beneath a wave after a very unsatisfying run. “Well, maybe skipping stones on the ocean isn’t ideal. I usually do it at a lake, and the surface is much smoother.”
George nodded. “Yes—I bet you’re right.”
He still tossed his stone into the waters.
One—two—three—
“Four skips?” She whirled on George, who looked up at her with far too innocent a face. “You knew all along how to skip rocks!”
George grinned. “I’m a merman. We have competitive rock skipping. It’s a huge sport. People even bet on it—how many skips someone can do, who will win the match...I never did anything professional, though.”
Sariah gaped anyway. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you looked so happy! You wanted to teach me, and I didn’t have the heart to tell you otherwise.” He grinned that dimple-showing smile again.
But the dimple disappeared the second they heard the strange sound. It was hard to place at first, mostly because the reverberation in the cave made almost anything hard to hear. But George paled and ducked down under the water without warning her. He surfaced a few moments later. He looked on the verge of tears again. “There’s a boat. It’s coming—it’s coming quick. They must have followed us, Sariah—they’re going to take me!”
“They are not. Not even Nanny Eleanor could convince me to give you up. It doesn’t matter what happened to Leon. I want you to stay with me!” Sariah slid into the water. Her head bobbed above the waves as she grabbed his pinkies with her. “Promise. We’ll always stay together. We’re going to be pirates and circus ringmasters and friends. Forever.”
George looked a bit petrified. “Forever,” he whispered, but it was very unconvincing. For one thing, he looked like he might faint.
“Come on, George. They’re coming by boat, but that means we can sneak by them under the water. Right?” Sariah squeezed his pinkie harder. “So I’ll hold onto you, and you swim us out of here.”
“Right.” George whimpered a bit but took her hand. “Don’t let go.”
“I won’t.” Sariah interlocked their fingers and took a deep breath.
Then she was in George’s world.
To be fair, she still had no idea what it held. She was hesitant to open her eyes, she was holding her breath, and it felt no different than swimming. She’d done that a thousand times, with and without George.
But this time George held her hand tight, so it felt like an invitation to enter the realm of merfolk, maybe even become a mermaid herself. She could almost imagine her legs becoming a beautiful tail...perhaps George could make her a mermaid somehow?
She wanted to open her eyes. She wanted to fight through the sting and see what he could see right now. To see his world. So...she summoned up all the courage of Lizzie—and herself—and pried her eyelids open, one at a time.
The saltwater stung, terribly, but once she got it open, she could see the sea frothing around her, George’s outstretched arms…
The whole water seemed to ripple. Then the water wasn’t water at all—it was blood. Clouds of blood rose from...from what?
George was jerked away from her.
No—no—Sariah wanted to scream. She wanted to take in a deep breath of salt water and scream. A spear had impaled him, right through his tail. George gave a terrible, inhuman wail as his blood wafted out from the injury, large coils which wrapped around Sariah and threatened to smother her in more ways than one.
She had to get air. She had to get air, force herself to breathe, maybe even scream as well—and then she’d come back and pull the spear out of his body.
“Sariah!”
He shrieked her name, reached out for her, strained his fingers towards her wrist. His poor body shuddered with the weight of his agony, and he writhed there on the sand bottom. She could see the tears in his eyes, but the ocean wiped them away before she could.
Sariah felt blurry. Her whole head was fogged up. He was bleeding out, but she was going to faint.
He grasped her fingers once more.
Right before a net captured both of them and dragged them up towards the shore.
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